Blog

So, finally got the new site up and running. I’ll probably continue to tweak the look here and there, but for now I like where it’s at. Secondly, I’ve updated my logo from the yellow Duff to a sleeker Duff. It still doesn’t feel perfect, but that’s probably because I’m not used to seeing it yet. Overall, I wanted something a bit neater, and cleaner than the previous version. Below you can see the final designs. After testing a few of them out, I felt that the current one fit the site the best. I still really like the third version, and am tempted to switch to that version. Any thoughts out there?

Well I’ve been plugging away through the final chapter of Athanor (not including the epilogue) and I’ve got about seven pages to go before I have my first draft in the can. I’m tempted to toss everything up online, because I’m excited at how its all turning out, but I’m not sure it’s going to make much sense out of context. Plus I don’t want to give away the ending of the book. So here’s a wide establishing shot setting up the two main combatants at the end of the story. I kind of like how this panel turned out. Although, I have to admit, drawing the armors of the main characters over and over can get pretty tedious, especially when I’m trying to draw them from weird angles.

So usually I use this space as a means to post my work and show off my art, but I’m fresh from seeing Prometheus and wanted to get some thoughts down about the movie. None of my friends have seen it yet and with no one to discuss the film with, I’m off to the internet. Also be warned, I’m not holding back any spoilers, so if I actually have any readers and you don’t want to know about the movie, turn away now.

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Still with me? Ok, as I was saying, I just saw the movie and had to get some of my thoughts out there. I should say that I haven’t read any reviews or criticisms of the film yet. I had really been anticipating this one for a while and purposefully avoided reading anything about the movie.

First I wanted to start with some of the things (plot points, characters, etc.) from the movie that rankled me as I was watching, either b/c they were implausible or b/c they left things unresolved.

1. Reanimating the dead humanoid alien’s head, after it had been dead for over a millennia. They explained it with one tossed off line about how incredibly well it had been preserved. That thing should have been dust, let alone have working tissue. I suppose I should let this one go, if I’m willing to accept interstellar space travel and androids.

2. What was David’s motivation for infecting the archeologist? David couldn’t have known what would have resulted, yet the film presented these events as if he had some inside information. I’m guessing that these actions were under orders from Guy Pierce’s character – as a means to find the cure for his aging.

3. How did one member of the crew come back to life and why was he super strong? Plus it was sort ambiguous as to which crew member it was that had been re-animated – the archaeologist, the biologist or the surly geologist? My guess is that we were led to believe that he (geologist) had been infected somehow by the creature in the chamber, which leads me to number 4.

4. Characters doing dumb shit. The bespectacled biologist was so freaked out by the dead humanoid alien, that he and the geologist bailed on the rest of the team. So why then would they go back to the same chamber that freaked them out the previous time, and secondly why try and get friendly with a live alien? This just read as inconsistent characterization to me, for the sake of the plot.

5. On a ship full of scientists, why leave an alien creature that had just been birthed by a human host unattended? Wouldn’t they be all over that, and studying the crap out of it? Secondly, why didn’t Naomi Rapace’s character tell anyone what had just happened to her? I get that there were elements of the crew that had ulterior motives, notably Guy Pierce, but I don’t think that’s something that she would have kept a secret.

6. Finally the crux of the whole story that left me scratching my head, was the ambiguity surrounding the motivation of the alien humanoids. I wasn’t expecting an answer to the meaning of life when I walked into the theater, I was just looking to be entertained and left with some stuff to think about, so on that level the film was very successful. Few movies get this much immediate response from me, but still, this whole plot point seemed to be too loosely drawn in my opinion. Why would he kill all the crew members when he awoke? If they had been destroyed by their own creations, why make a whole planet full of them? I interpreted it as thus – the humanoid aliens created humanity, or had been involved in its creation, but then decided to re-make them into something new, by infecting them with the black goo found in the canisters. This was hinted at by the prologue where we see one of the humanoids drinking a black liquid, disintegrating and his DNA re-combining into a new configuration. But, if the black goo turned them (the humanoids) into killer monsters, why infect a whole planet full of humans (who have been established to be genetically identical to the humanoids) when logic dictates that the human populace will then turn into the same killer monsters? So when the humanoid awoke wouldn’t he think – “Hmm look what happened to us, we turned into monsters, maybe a whole planet full of monsters that can kill us is a bad idea?” For a super advanced race they were pretty stupid.

Overall I liked the movie, but in retrospect it was more about tone, mood and evoking emotion in the audience (which it excelled at), but not creating a powerful story, or at least one with any internal logic, or a true mythology. SF is all about rules, establishing the guidelines for the the universe that the author is creating and when those rules are broken they’re broken for a reason. With Prometheus, at best, the SF elements were a guise, a vehicle to explore the idea of the creator vs. the created and the moral and ethical ramifications of creating life. This is best illustrated in the characters of David (the most interesting character in the film) and Charlize Theron’s character, who may or may not also be an android. Ultimately I saw the movie as more of a poem or maybe a song, one about the fear of the unknown and a caution against seeking those answers. I suppose in that way Prometheus is an apt title.

If anyone out there is actually reading this – I’d be curious to know what you thought of the movie. Or if you totally disagree with my points that’s cool too, I’d be interesed in knowing why.

Well not including the epilogue anyways. I’m getting closer to the end of the book, 13 more pages to draw. This is the first page of the final chapter of the book. I like how this one came out, so figured I’d post it up online.

So I thought I’d post some storyboards that I’ve been working on in my spare time. I’ve been doodling this character in my sketchbook for a while, and I thought he might make a fun character for a short. For the next step, I might put together an animatic. Anyways here they are, take a gander.

So for while now, I’ve been playing with an ultimate frisbee club based in Boston, called the Hungry Hippos. Anyways, there was an interest in updating our disc design, so I was happy to oblige.

I drew this in PS with my Intuos tablet and then vectorized in Illustrator to get the lines as clean as possible. Because of the way the image is printed on the plastic, I couldn’t include too much detail in the illustration. Overall I’m pretty happy with how it came together. Check out the final illustration below:

We went through a couple of different versions, and below you can see the initial design proposals. I really liked the first one, with the hippo peering over the surface of the water. I liked the simplicity of the design, but everyone else responded more to the third design. I wanted to carry over the horizontal plane of water into the third version, but ultimately decided it was best to abandon it. It was a cool design element in the other versions but didn’t mesh well with the perspective in number three.

Just finished the line art for the last page of Chapter 7, only 19 more pages left to go. This chapter ends on a cliffhanger, with Porter being captured again by Alderic. The exciting part is seeing the pages that I scripted two years ago finally start coming into fruition. Hard to believe I’ve been working on this for that long.

So I had an itch for some digital painting, so I decided to work up one of the panels from Dreaming of Athanor. If you scroll down the page, you’ll noticed I posted the penciled version a little while back. Overall I like how it came out. Anyways, take a look and let me know what you think.

Lately I’ve also been editing a short promotional video for Music On and Up, which is an organization that gives young musicians the opportunity to perform at local music venues and receive critique from professional musicians and producers. I’m not quite done with the final edit, but I wanted to post some of the graphics.